When I found out I was getting the amp I knew I would not be able to focus on anything else until it was set up so I set time aside for just that reason.

My first impression of the UPA-2 was that it was big and heavy. I know that's not a good way to gauge the quality of a product but I have to admit it got me excited to see what kind of an improvement I would get compared to my Pioneer SC-05.

Unboxing:
The UPA-2 ships in a labeled emotiva product box. The amp it held safe in very dense foam packaging and sealed in plastic wrap. The silver accent pieces come attached (emo sells replacement black bars.) Emotiva also provides a small allen wrench to remove the bars if you would like. I promptly did so as I feel the bars detract from the esthetics of the amp and clashes with the rest of my equipment.

When looking over the amp I was at first concerned with the build quality. While the amp was sturdy, with a very large bolt protruding from the bottom of the unit holding the power source in place, the binding posts, gain dial, and RCA terminals seemed flimsy.

A little worried I pressed on.

My Depth I has RCA and LFE in/out it so as to set the crossover for the towers separately then the surrounds, since many AVRs require you to have one crossover point for all the speakers. My Pioneer included.

After connecting the amp to my pioneer's pre-out and connecting my Vantages as well as looping the RCA from the amp to the sub. I hooked up the 12v trigger from the pioneer to the amp. Emotiva was kind enough to provide an 12v out so as to chain multiple triggers together. I then set all the power setting on my AVR and started mcacc to bring my levels up to reference.

85db was no problem with this amp. I had to adjust the gain to about 3/4 and then tweak the setting from the AVR from there.

I noticed a hum coming from my speakers when the amp was on but no source was sending signal through. This tested at 30db! A little research showed this was not uncommon for people to experience. Once a source was powered on (even just the AVR with nothing playing) the hum quit. I would be worried about this but I don't leave my equipment on when not in use and the 12v trigger powers the amp on/off as needed.

I started out my comparison listening to some CDs
Pink Floyd -dark side on sacd
Drop Kick Murphies -Meanest of Times
And Yeah Yeah Yeas -Show Your Bones

First I will say that while most people speak to the extended low end that a powerful amp brings to the table this was not the case for me as my Vantages have there own 200w powered sub and electrotats tend to be more power hungry, dipping to 1ohm or less, in the highs. Cymbal crashes and flutes were more accurate and defined. Bagpipes seemed to fill room. Even as I pushed the volume louder and louder I could not find the limit of ether my speakers or the amp. 0 was far too loud to stand for more them a few minutes.

I followed that up with some records
Doors -Morrison Hotel
Grateful Dead -in the dark

I have always liked the way records sound, audiophiles will use terms like warmer or more organic sounding. For me it's the ritual of playing the music. As you remove the record from it's sleeve. Carefully dust the disc before every listening. And physically lower the needle on to the spinning platter. It makes you pay attention to the music and for me makes me appreciate it more. The Doors came to life in my living room.

That night I watched the second Lord of the Rings
I had just gotten the trilogy on bluray and two nights ago had watched disc one. Throughout the second film I was impressed by how detailed the sound was. I could pickup on small sounds that I had not noticed before. The quality was undeniable. At times I found I was paying more attention to the sounds then the storytelling. Needless to say I was impressed.

Since then I have been playing COD4:2 a lot. I'm still running stereo 2.1 with no center or surrounds. Still I'm getting very good imaging and get enough auditory ques to know what sounds are behind me.

To sum it up. My setup was great before but now it's truly amazing. I understand what people mean by headroom now. The UPA-2 will stay in my home setup for many moons.

Great review, thanks for taking the time to share it. However, I guess I'm not understanding how an Emotiva UPA-2 is more powerful than the Pioneer SC-05 AV Receiver for two channel reproduction. The SC-05 is rated for two-channel, both channels driven at 140 watts per channel, 20 Hz to 20 kHz, 8 Ω, 0.09 % THD whereas the Emotiva UPA-2 is rated at 125 watts per channel both channels driven, 20 Hz to 20 kHz, 8 Ω, 0.1 % THD. The Pioneer SC-05 uses Class D amplifiers while the Emotiva UPA-2 is of A/B topology. Perhaps the Emotiva is better able to handle the impedance dips than the Pioneer. What am I missing here and are we dealing with a psychoacoustic response?

I definitely bet there was something going on. Electrostats present not only low impedance dips but inductive phase angles. In fact even though I`m someone who normally doesn`t believe in cables sounding different, I would be the first to tell you to look carefully at the DC resistance and inductance of the cable if you`re running electrostats. They`re just fickle like that :P

Ordered one of these today. With a clearance price of $299 and my Marantz 8002 having zone 2 preouts it was impossible to pass up for my pair of p162s in that zone. I curse your quality gear and rock-bottom prices Emotiva!